End Game
by SJlikeslists
Summary: Does anyone ever ask those involved with The Centre what it is they really want? (periodic additions may occur)
1. Begin

Disclaimer: _The Pretender_ is not mine.

There were some truly lovely offices in the upper levels of the building that housed The Centre in Blue Cove. They were tastefully decorated. They had natural light pouring in the windows. They featured furniture options for sitting that left clients feeling comfortable and assured that they were dealing with people who intended to make looking after them a priority.

The Centre was a place that understood that ambiance was not just a word that was carelessly thrown around. It was a tool to be used to help accomplish goals; it was even a weapon that could be wielded if one knew what they were doing. There was nowhere that this was more apparent than in what were loosely termed conference rooms at the very top of the executive floors (not even the lowest of the sublevels could compete with the manner in which atmosphere was used to influence those who entered). This section was the place that clients (and most of the inmates) never saw. It was where T-boards were held. It was where interviews and meetings were held when it was felt that certain persons needed a sharp reminder of their places in the hierarchy.

It was the place that Mr. Parker had been summoned to be given the details of what was being referred to as an audit of efficiency and resource management in all official memoranda on the subject. In house communications had been flying around for weeks with both tension and excitement over the prospect. The Tower was very eager about what was about to take place which meant that most everyone else was concerned about what changes might be occurring and what effects it might have on them.

Mr. Parker fell into neither category. He weathered ups and downs and drastic and subtle changes within The Centre with the ease with which other people breathed. He was, however, interested in seeing what sort of methodology this new consultant might put into place in order to achieve his ends. What he received when he arrived was a formal introduction to their new "efficiency expert" who handed him a single sheet of paper listing the questions that he intended to use in interviews in order to create his report.

Mr. Parker was less than impressed (possibly more so because of the connotations inherent in where he had been summoned for the meeting and his failure to be able to immediately discern what message it was that he was being sent).

"I hardly see where any of this," he gestured loosely in the direction of his copy of the paper, "is relevant to what you have been asked to accomplish."

"I don't suppose you would," the man across the table from him agreed with a touch of amusement in his tone that grated on Mr. Parker's nerves.

"I beg your pardon."

"You obviously brought me here for a reason," the man elaborated with a slight wave of his hand in the direction of the series of faces hidden in the darkened, far portion of the room. "You requested my services. You offered a hefty paycheck with a very healthy number of zeros," he leaned forward across the table and locked eyes with the other man. "If you could have done what I am doing yourself, you would not have been willing to do any of those things. Given that, what makes you think that you would have any familiarity or understanding of the methods that I intend to employ?" Mr. Parker opened his mouth to speak but was unceremoniously interrupted.

"Don't," the man commanded. "I've already finished this conversation with you. At this point, you are merely wasting my time - time that belongs to the Centre actually, since the Centre is paying the bill. I was under the impression that your organization did not take a particularly pleasant view of those who waste their resources?" He let the words hang in the air between them for a moment before he chuckled in what could only be termed a less than pleasant manner.

"Don't worry," he told Mr. Parker with a smile that failed to be reassuring. "I'm sure I'll get back around to you before everything is said and done. After all, I'm to make a thorough survey of all aspects and levels of this organization. You'll be on my list. Consider yourself given an opportunity to prepare before I come back to ask you those questions." The man offered a small nod in the direction of the shadowed faces before making his way out of the room.

There was silence in his wake, and Mr. Parker had been around long enough to know that silence in these situations did not equal a dismissal. They were waiting for him to make a comment so they could make some sort of further judgment about how the interlude had gone. They were always doing that, and he knew exactly in what manner to indulge them. It was very important that he show that there was nothing in all of this digging that could rattle him.

"This is ludicrous," he offered into the open space around him with a slight inclination of his shoulders that could be interpreted as a shrug.

"This is a directive from the tower," a voice from the shadows responded immediately. "Is there a problem with your compliance of which you need to make us aware, Mr. Parker?"

"We're giving carte blanche to an outsider -access, unlimited timetable, no oversight," he replied. One did not directly disagree with the tower. One used finesse. One stated facts and left open ended implications hanging in the air so that you were offering items for their consideration without ever placing yourself as a direct target for confrontation.

"That would be correct," the voice stated.

Mr. Parker kept silent. There was nothing else appropriate for the moment to be said.

"You could ask why," the voice stated without the slightest hint of suggestion when they had determined that he was not going to speak.

He still said nothing. He did, however, turn to fully face their direction with the face that had carried him through these hallways for decades firmly in place.

"That's why you've lasted as long as you have," the voice stated in response to his lack of verbal response. "It's a pity your relations haven't always shared that particular skillset," it concluded. "Are there any pertinent questions before you leave?"

"Where will he be starting?" He inquired rising to his feet. He had to ask something. It would not do to appear overly dismissive by feigning a complete lack of interest.

"As you've mentioned, Mr. Parker, we are providing no oversight on this particular matter," the voice replied. "He'll start where he pleases," it added as if it was an afterthought. He knew better than to believe that. It had been tacked on on purpose. It was part of the message that he was being sent.

He left his copy of the paper on the table. It struck the right note of nonchalance. He couldn't very well take it with him as if he thought he actually did need to prepare for his efficiency and resource management evaluation. It remained where he had placed it off to the side after his first perusal. It wasn't as though it had been a lengthy treatise. He had already committed the thing to memory in case he should need a working knowledge of the list for some as yet unknown reason.

He was not going to allow it to bother him that he was sure that the man would require a deeper answer than the standard "the continued success and prosperity of The Centre" for question number one.

1\. What is your goal for your time in relationship with this organization?


	2. Angelo

Disclaimer: _The Pretender_ is not mine.

The efficiency expert does not start in any of the places that those in the Tower likely believed that he would. As he had not so graciously informed Mr. Parker, if they were capable of doing what he was doing, then they already would have done it themselves. He starts in the lower levels of The Centre because there is one inmate that he believes will provide an excellent baseline for understanding a wide variety of the still as yet mysteries of this place that he intends to unravel. He has read a multitude of files on an expanse of topics, and he has noticed that there is a secondary notation that crops up from time to time as if the entirety of the place has a collective afterthought to try the same back up plan when their first premises fail.

He finds that he is not surprised that he does not find the man in any of the places that he looks. There seems to be no designated place for him to be (a glaring anomaly in this place that makes him that much more interested in meeting this person). He is equally unsurprised when he finds the man waiting for him in the cleared office area that has been turned over for his use. That was exactly what he had been hoping for, and he was pleased to not be disappointed.

He quickly surmises that with Angelo one must pay close attention to what is not being said as well as how the words that are spoken relate to each other in context. It is a pleasant intellectual exercise, and he allows himself two or three meetings to simply absorb before he starts to negotiate the connections and determine what all it is that he is being told.

Angelo, he learns, is amused by the scope of his undertaking. It makes sense to him that he would be. The man in front of him knows what the people in this place would give in honest answer to his questions better than most of them do. He could extract most of the information that he intends to gather from the man in front of him if he were to show the patience and put in the effort to do so. That, however, would not suit his purposes. It does no good for him to know. They need to know themselves or nothing useful will truly be accomplished.

"Secrets," Angelo tells him waving his finger back and forth as if he is in the process of connecting a multitude of dots. "Secrets here from here," he muses while tapping his head and then his heart. "And here from here," he shakes his head as he reverses the motion. "Always pretending. We all hide."

When he summarizes his notes from their sessions together, he tries to write them out as if they were in Angelo's internal voice - the one that he cannot make come out clearly despite its clear existence to anyone taking the time to pay attention. There are very few people who truly pay attention to Angelo. It's a common theme in the internal structure of The Centre. There are a lot of things to which a very few people seem to be paying attention. He is here to rectify that, and he was absolutely correct that Angelo was the place to start.

 **Subject:** Angelo

 **Summation:**

They are all too stubborn for their own good. It would be amusing if it weren't so maddeningly frustrating. He thinks that he has done a marvelous job of remaining patient with them through the years (given that he has the same genetic predispositions toward being stubborn and easily angered by any questioning of his plans and logic and an absolute determination that his way is the right way to do things).

He, at least, recognizes these traits that all of them carry in common. The others spend most of their time in denial to varying degrees that there is anything that links them together beyond the most basic of past histories. He isn't certain why it is that he sees things more clearly. He does not know if it is the changes that were made to him when he was a child. He does not know if it is a compensation for the difficulties that he has expressing himself in face to face communication (although, after years of observing the others, he is no longer so sure that his difficulties have all arisen from the damage that was inflicted upon him - the others exhibit a wide range of communication difficulties both with other people and with themselves).

His life would be much simpler if the others would just do as they are told, but a dislike for taking the simple path is something else that they seem to have in common. So, Angelo plays the complicated game of subtlety and stealth and half-defined clues leading down a path that they are forever getting distracted from and stalling from traveling down and hopping off of all together. He fights the near chronic inclination to beat his head against the walls in a visual display of his interior frustrations, and he keeps trying.

He keeps sending messages. He keeps arranging things in a manner to bring about confrontations and the processing of pertinent information. He works through and around his communication difficulties, and he ignores the attempts to push him into sidelines and secondary projects that occur when some of those in higher (or that think they are in higher) positions remember his existence and decide it is time to see what use he might be to them. He does not give up on his plans or ideas; he does not give up on them. They need him; they need each other.

 **End Game:**

Angelo desires the reconciliation of his childhood adopted family. His purpose is to put them all at peace with their past so that they may all have a functional future.

 **Commitment Level:** Unshakable


	3. Broots

Disclaimer: _The Pretender_ is not mine.

The concept that loose lips sink ships was apparently one that his current subject was either unfamiliar with or failed to care about. He might also, the efficiency expert considered, be incapable of filtering his running commentary. Some people spoke extensively when they were nervous, and this subject seemed to exist in varying degrees of upset nerves the vast majority of the time. His preliminary research seemed to indicate that the man had gotten better at presenting a front over the years (applied observations of his closest coworkers perhaps), but the underlying uncomfortableness with where he was and some of the things that he was asked to be doing never seemed to completely leave him.

It was an interesting trait to be allowed to continue in someone with the clearance to be made aware of the level of the projects with which the man dealt on a regular basis. The efficiency expert concluded two things from this. First, the man was very good at what he did. Second, those in charge were comfortable with his demeanor. They interpreted it as fear and fear alone. The hierarchy of The Centre tended to perceive fear as a useful condition. It was actively encouraged as a response in all levels of the organization. That the frequency with which said conditioned responses often ended up with massive costs with little gain in a multitude of areas seemed to do nothing to deter the status quo. Although, if no one were interested in disrupting the status quo, then he supposes they never would have contacted him in the first place.

This subject is easy to find and even easier to engage in conversation. A cup of coffee and the pretension of a shared workspace are all it takes to insert oneself into his daily routine. The man rambles when he is nervous. He talks to himself while he is working. He seems to operate under the assumption that anyone who is in his vicinity is someone who wishes to listen to him speak. Yet, he never once hears the man let slip anything about the main project that is the focus of most of his time. He makes nothing but the most common place (and completely lacking in either the sharing of or confirming of details) about his two coworkers in that same venture.

To talk and say nothing is a great skill - especially in a place like this where everyone begins from the assumption that everyone is hiding something. He cannot quite determine whether it is a natural occurrence on the part of the man or whether it has been cultivated. It does not matter in the course of his observations. He is paying attention to more than idle chatter. He hears the implications of the dead spaces of his topics. He understands more than the man in question may, in fact, know about what it is that he is and is not saying.

Mr. Broots, he decides, is being vastly underestimated by those in the Tower who have dismissed his nervousness as something they can control. One would think that after their little misunderstanding over their data breach that they would have reconsidered, but it, apparently, only cemented their previous notions.

He summarizes his findings in a short synapsis as requested and keeps the longer file that he has compiled with his personal papers. He could give greater detail and explain a great many things to them if they would bother to follow up on his presentations. Whether or not they will remains to be seen.

 **Subject:** Mr. Broots

 **Summation:** Mr. Broots quite literally wants nothing long term from his continued business relationship with The Centre. He has a certain level of disquiet as regards certain aspects of the organization's dealings, but he believes he is unable to directly confront or counter the sources of his concerns. The Centre is a means to an end for him. He has no interest in its continued prosperity or even existence beyond its purpose as a means by which he is able to provide for his daughter. Her safety and comfort are his primary concern. Heavy financial considerations in regards to the battle for custody of the child led to his initial acceptance of his offer of employment.

Mr. Broots is a man who keeps his bargains. He views his work at The Centre as the price he pays for his daughter's welfare. This, in turn, adds to his disinclination to speak up or push back when he finds himself in a situation that strains his personal ethics.

As an additional note, Mr. Broots seems to be genuinely fond of his immediate team (even in the face of, at times, blatant provocation toward unpleasantness). He reserves a certain measure of loyalty for both of them which has come into play on multiple occasions without it being noted as such in his official files. The man is capable of subterfuge and even daring when the situation involves appropriate motivation (in Mr. Broots' case, appropriate motivation always being the people about whom he cares).

If confronted with a situation that places his daughter directly in the path of being harmed by a directive, Mr. Broots will choose his daughter every time. If a situation were to arise where superiors attempted to use his child to ensure his cooperation, those in the Tower would find themselves unpleasantly surprised at the manner in which their encouragement of a fear based work environment blows up in their faces. It would be best to avoid all potential issues in that area in direct opposition to the guidelines and contingencies listed in Directive 08-34216C.

As regards his current placement, Mr. Broots accomplishes more during his side assignments and periodic temporary placement for upgrades and software composition than he does during his full time, official project. It is not a matter of incapability. This is a direct result of a level of unrealistic expectations coupled with an over focus of resources in certain areas while others remain neglected.

 **End Game:** Mr. Broots desires to be left in peace to raise his daughter. He will fulfill his contractual obligations so long as they do not directly interfere with that desire. He will twist his fulfillment of said obligations in a manner that will benefit the members of his team where possible and as he sees fit.

 **Commitment Level:** High


End file.
